Developer reduces size of Route 306 retail project

Wednesday

Aurora -- Planning commission members on May 16 accepted for study a revised final site plan for Chillicothe Commons and a lot split-reconfiguration for the Stackelberg property on Aurora-Hudson Road.

Ironwood Development plans to build Chillicothe Commons, a retail-office development, on 9 acres on the east side of Route 306 just north of Mario's International.

Original plans called for two buildings comprising about 54,000 square feet, but the revised plans call for three buildings comprising 44,500 square feet.

An original 47,000-square-foot building is now planned to be two buildings of 30,800 and 7,200 square feet. A water retention basin is planned where the elbow of the original L-shaped building was to be.

The 30,800-square-foot building would be further away from Route 306 than the other two buildings and would be the only two-story structure of the three.

Developer Alan Ritchey plans not to touch the back half of the property except for placing two retention basins to the west and south of a one-acre wetlands.

The property backs up to the Oaks of Aurora condominiums. It is bordered on the south by land owned by Mario's International and Maxine M. Keene and on the north by land owned by Mario and Joanne Liuzzo and Jane E. Burns.

Project engineer Sam Suhail said the developer originally planned to use the wetlands in the back for runoff, but decided to build a third basin to prevent delays in getting permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

He said the developer hopes to get started on the larger building later this year, with the two smaller buildings coming thereafter.

NEITHER Suhail or architect Patrick Casey would comment on prospective tenants for the buildings.

"The city believes this is the best plan for the land," said Planning-Zoning-Building Director Rich Wehrenberg. "It would leave much of the property undisturbed."